Golden dollars get ugly when worn. What happened to this?

For the past four years I have been an inveterate collector of Barber
coins, despite all the opinions posted here and elsewhere about how
most Barbers are well worn and don't wear wear well. Yes, I have too
many Barber dimes that suffered through decades of duties in everyday
commerce, but I love them as perhaps only Charles Barber's mother
might.

Last week, when I deposited my paycheck, I troubled the teller as I
usually do, to produce some of my cash back in one dollar coins. My
local bank never seems to have a roll available, but tellers here are
always willing to see if the next window might have a few Sacs, SBAs,
or Ikes. New employees at my bank are stupid enough to ask me "and
how would you like that back, sir?" Last week's veteran teller saw me
coming and did not relish asking her coworkers if they had any half
dollars or one dollar coins. However, she produced 4 AU 2000
Sacagawea dollars plus one more. She assumed (erronously) that no one
in his right mind would ask for a Susan B. Anthony dollar, since they
are often mistaken for quarters. (I enjoy spending SBAs as tips when
I have received less than satisfactory service in a restaurant) She
came back with 5 golden dollars including this one:

http://members.aol.com/pjrobertz/coins/1979SBAbrobv.jpg

http://members.aol.com/pjrobertz/coins/1979SBAbrrev.jpg

Since I was late to work, I only glanced at the five small golden
dollars. Still, I remember seeing the reverse of one and thinking
"these don't wear well". When I was about to spend it a co-worker
pointed out to me that the date was 1979. How could I have missed
that?

My cranky bank teller did not produce one of those celebrated SBA
dollars mistakenly struck on a brass planchet, since the date is at
least 20 years before those error coins. This looks like a genuine
1979 SBA dollar coin except for the color. The reeded edge is
uniformly the same color as the obverse and reverse, but the worn
areas are starting to look like nickel. What happened with this coin?
Was someone so bored that they brass-plated a 1979 SBA for kicks?
Perhaps they did this to several hundred recently in order to pass
them off as $1 coins instead of quarters?

I just tossed this into my scanner and did not edit the image at all.
This weekend I'll post it on eBay and see what happens.

It could be a gold-plated Susie that has been circulated and is now worn.

I've found more than one of those (and in various conditions).

-Fred Shecter
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...shreadv ector

--
"""Remove "zorch" from address (2 places) to reply.
"Paul Robertz" wrote in message
om...
For the past four years I have been an inveterate collector of Barber
coins, despite all the opinions posted here and elsewhere about how
most Barbers are well worn and don't wear wear well. Yes, I have too
many Barber dimes that suffered through decades of duties in everyday
commerce, but I love them as perhaps only Charles Barber's mother
might.

Last week, when I deposited my paycheck, I troubled the teller as I
usually do, to produce some of my cash back in one dollar coins. My
local bank never seems to have a roll available, but tellers here are
always willing to see if the next window might have a few Sacs, SBAs,
or Ikes. New employees at my bank are stupid enough to ask me "and
how would you like that back, sir?" Last week's veteran teller saw me
coming and did not relish asking her coworkers if they had any half
dollars or one dollar coins. However, she produced 4 AU 2000
Sacagawea dollars plus one more. She assumed (erronously) that no one
in his right mind would ask for a Susan B. Anthony dollar, since they
are often mistaken for quarters. (I enjoy spending SBAs as tips when
I have received less than satisfactory service in a restaurant) She
came back with 5 golden dollars including this one:

http://members.aol.com/pjrobertz/coins/1979SBAbrobv.jpg

http://members.aol.com/pjrobertz/coins/1979SBAbrrev.jpg

Since I was late to work, I only glanced at the five small golden
dollars. Still, I remember seeing the reverse of one and thinking
"these don't wear well". When I was about to spend it a co-worker
pointed out to me that the date was 1979. How could I have missed
that?

My cranky bank teller did not produce one of those celebrated SBA
dollars mistakenly struck on a brass planchet, since the date is at
least 20 years before those error coins. This looks like a genuine
1979 SBA dollar coin except for the color. The reeded edge is
uniformly the same color as the obverse and reverse, but the worn
areas are starting to look like nickel. What happened with this coin?
Was someone so bored that they brass-plated a 1979 SBA for kicks?
Perhaps they did this to several hundred recently in order to pass
them off as $1 coins instead of quarters?

I just tossed this into my scanner and did not edit the image at all.
This weekend I'll post it on eBay and see what happens.

On 20 Feb (Paul Robertz) wrote:

Last week, when I deposited my paycheck, I troubled the teller as I
usually do, to produce some of my cash back in one dollar coins. My
local bank never seems to have a roll available, but tellers here are
always willing to see if the next window might have a few Sacs, SBAs,
or Ikes.

I cashed a check to get some dollar denomination cash,
for cash purchases, and asked if he had dollar coins.
He said 3 rolls plus 9, so I took them all. When I got
to the car I looked at the rolls and the wrappers are dark
gray tinted blue or purple, and are printed "$25 Golden
Dollars"
Is this a known roll marking, a national issue, or just a
local armored service wrapper?

The coins are all SACs, look ugly coming out of the
roll, but seem to have no wear, all are 2000P I think, and
the edges aeem much browner than the faces.

Joe Fischer

Standard dollar coin color is silver or grey. That can be either black ink on silver or
grey colored paper or it can be silver or grey ink (including stripes) on white paper. And
then there are the "I'm waiting to see them" plastic wrappers (clear) which are described
on the sides of the dollar coin boxes I've been getting for the last year or so. They
changed the box art a bit and added that text.

I've seen the purply-grey wrappers that say "$25 Golden Dollars" as you described. They
are for hand wrapping. And they are often filled with commingled SBAs and GDs.

Do a web search for coin wrappers and see what you can find.


-Fred Shecter
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...shreadv ector

--
"""Remove "zorch" from address (2 places) to reply.
"Joe Fischer" wrote in message
...
On 20 Feb (Paul Robertz) wrote:

Last week, when I deposited my paycheck, I troubled the teller as I
usually do, to produce some of my cash back in one dollar coins. My
local bank never seems to have a roll available, but tellers here are
always willing to see if the next window might have a few Sacs, SBAs,
or Ikes.

I cashed a check to get some dollar denomination cash,
for cash purchases, and asked if he had dollar coins.
He said 3 rolls plus 9, so I took them all. When I got
to the car I looked at the rolls and the wrappers are dark
gray tinted blue or purple, and are printed "$25 Golden
Dollars"
Is this a known roll marking, a national issue, or just a
local armored service wrapper?

The coins are all SACs, look ugly coming out of the
roll, but seem to have no wear, all are 2000P I think, and
the edges aeem much browner than the faces.

Joe Fischer

Some laundromat owners in the 80s and 90s switched to SBAs for
laundry. Of course, they also had to provide changers for paper
bucks. Many stained or painted SBAs to keep folks from jamming dryers
- which often were still set for quarters. For example, Hart's in
Chicago used to spay their SBAs with Blue Dycum. In Orlando, I
remember the local laundry used a red paint that stained the SBAs even
when the paint wore off. They used to paint a few purple and offer
prizes for them.



Joe Fischer wrote in message . ..
On 20 Feb (Paul Robertz) wrote:

Last week, when I deposited my paycheck, I troubled the teller as I
usually do, to produce some of my cash back in one dollar coins. My
local bank never seems to have a roll available, but tellers here are
always willing to see if the next window might have a few Sacs, SBAs,
or Ikes.

I cashed a check to get some dollar denomination cash,
for cash purchases, and asked if he had dollar coins.
He said 3 rolls plus 9, so I took them all. When I got
to the car I looked at the rolls and the wrappers are dark
gray tinted blue or purple, and are printed "$25 Golden
Dollars"
Is this a known roll marking, a national issue, or just a
local armored service wrapper?

The coins are all SACs, look ugly coming out of the
roll, but seem to have no wear, all are 2000P I think, and
the edges aeem much browner than the faces.

Joe Fischer

(Phil Barnhart) wrote in message . com...
Some laundromat owners in the 80s and 90s switched to SBAs for
laundry. Of course, they also had to provide changers for paper
bucks. Many stained or painted SBAs to keep folks from jamming dryers
- which often were still set for quarters. For example, Hart's in
Chicago used to spay their SBAs with Blue Dycum. In Orlando, I
remember the local laundry used a red paint that stained the SBAs even
when the paint wore off. They used to paint a few purple and offer
prizes for them.

That's a good explanation for this one. Someone else (not here) said:
"Wow...you found one of those rare edition collector coins from the
Coin Vault that is layered in (one dip) 24-K Gold from the Josh Tatum
Mint." That response leaves me like Josh Tatum: speechless.

I just noticed that this one is an S-mint with the more common "narrow
rim" as illustrated in the Red Book. Not a proof, and with the filled
S type I mintmark.

Actually, there are two varieties of plated SBAs that almost edge into
collectability:

1. In 1980, the US Mint (as reported in the NY Times) paid to have the
Canadian Mint plate SBAs in aureate bronze - which they had started
experimenting with - and perform wear tests. This work was actually
done at Sherritt, which owned the patent. I have seen one (with an
engineer's note on Sherritt letterhead) that has an "SP" etched on the
face prior to plating. The tests did not go well, but an FOIA request
to the US Mint resulted in a blacked-out page to protect "trade
secrets."

2. In 1998, as part of the new dollar coin debate, Inco proposed
coating new and existing SBAs with titanium nitride (TiN) - used to
plate tools and machinery and resulting in a gold color. This would
mean a continued demand for nickle (from Inco, nat!) and eliminate the
need to recalibrate coin vending machines (at the time, Olin had
failed in its attempt to create a golden alloy with right properties).
Again, a wear test was performed by an outside lab with mixed results
- the coating would flake. The Inco proposal was communicated to me
by the late Jim Benfield, who sent me an example of this. Its a bit
more shiny than gold plating.

(Paul Robertz) wrote in message . com...
(Phil Barnhart) wrote in message . com...
Some laundromat owners in the 80s and 90s switched to SBAs for
laundry. Of course, they also had to provide changers for paper
bucks. Many stained or painted SBAs to keep folks from jamming dryers
- which often were still set for quarters. For example, Hart's in
Chicago used to spay their SBAs with Blue Dycum. In Orlando, I
remember the local laundry used a red paint that stained the SBAs even
when the paint wore off. They used to paint a few purple and offer
prizes for them.

That's a good explanation for this one. Someone else (not here) said:
"Wow...you found one of those rare edition collector coins from the
Coin Vault that is layered in (one dip) 24-K Gold from the Josh Tatum
Mint." That response leaves me like Josh Tatum: speechless.

I just noticed that this one is an S-mint with the more common "narrow
rim" as illustrated in the Red Book. Not a proof, and with the filled
S type I mintmark.